Blog / Category_daily live food blog

I have beautiful meyer's lemons and my stomach is growling thinking about making a delicious lemon pudding with them. how about 2 avocados 2 meyer's lemons, peeled and deseeded honey dates to sweeten (I used 12 small ones) tiny bit of the lemon rind blend in Vitamix blender or food processor. oh it is HEAVENLY. I shared with my family. DELICIOUS.

let's see if I can remember yesterday! OH YES! Yesterday I wanted chocolate! I haven't wanted chocolate for over 2 weeks and woke up with a strong desire. So I made a big green smoothie for me and the kiddos and added some chocolate to it. 3 bananas 1.5 cups frozen peaches with skins 4 oz sunflower sprouts VM green AFA cashews (about 1/2 cup) cacao powder It was thick and creamy and smooth and very very filling. JUST what the doctor ordered. I drank 16 oz then did a bunch of homework, drank another 16 oz, rode the stationary bike for 10 miles, talked with an old good friend, made dinner. (The kids each had 16 oz of this, too.) dinner was simple: a plate of mesclun mix with steamed red bell pepper, onion, zuke and mushrooms. I added a dollop of parsley pesto that I love so much. afterwards I had some bites of raw cheezecake. I took a nice hot epsom salt bath which was great to soak into for a while. It was nice to read a magazine in bubbly, hot water. I had a very difficult time falling asleep and staying asleep. Got up at 8 am and got ready for the day. Today I made an even bigger green smoothie for the day. Last week I was out all day and didn't have enough juice (was hungry for 3+ hours) so this time I brought extra smoothie with me: 3 bananas 1.5 cups peaches with skins 1 bunch kale VM green rice protein powder I had about 20 oz in the morning and then went off for the day. I brought a salad with me and about 30 more oz of smoothie with me. The salad was almost exactly what I had last night except that instead of the parsley pesto, I had a dollop of cheddary cheeze. I also added a nori sheet and some dulse flakes. It was not huge but delicious. I had the rest of my smoothie around 3 pm. Got home and there was dinner made, which is always nice. it was vegan JUNK food: vegan spare rib cutlets served over brown rice and then put over a huge bed of mesclun mix. what is interesting is that I haven't wanted 2nds of anything except for this. junk food is junk food! :-) I rode the bike for 9.5 miles and am hoping to get to bed and stay asleep for 8-9 hours tonight!

I missed monday's post! I can tell you what I had though:

32 oz juice in the morning made of celery, greens, cuke and apples

32 oz smoothie for lunch made of blueberries, mango, banana, rice protein powder and a boat load of greens

dinner was a big plate of baby romaine with leftover rice pasta, bean burgers and veggies. it was THE most filling meal I've had in over 10 days. I got so tired and went to bed right away! LOL

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today when I got up, I was JONESING for hot cocoa. So I made a small mug using hemp milk. You know what? It didn't taste very good. isn't that something.

I wasn't really hungry so I cleaned up the kitchen a bit and then made a smoothie for later. made it with a bunch of collards, bananas, strawberries, rice protein powder and morning jing. I added some AFA and VM green too. it was tasty and filling. I drank it before going into town for errands and an appt.

Took my son to his eye appt and then we ran a few errands in town. I ate a "goji apparatus" from tulsi tea room that was nice but again, these foods were not tasting the same. Came home to do some online orders and then went back to bring in groceries, put them away and began making a bunch of food for the week. I made a pot of brown rice, 2 recipes of parsley pesto, 1/2 recipe of cheddary cheeze and then chopped up mushroom, onion, zuke and red bell pepper to steam cook for my dinner. I rode on the stationary bike for 45 minutes on level 10 and worked up a little sweat.

dinner was on a plate of meclun mix with the veggies over top, some slices of tempeh and about 1/2 cup brown rice and a spoonful of parsley pesto. It was a lot of food and filled me up very well. The rest of the family had some of the kickass chocolate covered cheezecake that I made but I didn't have any. My daughter and I took the dogs out for a walk - maybe about a mile and here I am now.

it's always interesting to gauge the tastebuds after a fast. something BURST with flavor and other things don't. some things taste a bit like sludge. I made this pasta for my daughter then day before and it tasted like nothing. I had to be careful not to over season because for me, I tasted nothing but she could taste it. Isn't that interesting?

So, I keep on keepin on. I'm basically back on the (modified) fuhrman plan with loads of veggies, a tiny bit of grains/legumes and laying off salt, processed sugar and oils. It was interesting to want the cocoa so badly and have it taste weird. Like too mild and I kinda shrugged my shoulders and say, "Meh. why bother?"

Have a great night!

all love,
Linda

So the "program" continues for me. I'm committed to 8 more weeks at least in order to get things back on the track that I like them to be.

I had a great day yesterday - I had 6 hours of ME time. How sweet is that. I don't get them often. In the morning I got up and made a juice:

1 pineapple
4 oranges
a bunch collards
1/3 cuke

The pineapple and oranges made about a quart of juice so I took about half that and added it to the greens and drank that down. I took the remainder fruit juice and put it in a blender and pre-made a smoothie:

16 oz fruit juice from above
1 banana
1 cup frozen local blueberries
heaps and heaps of baby spinach
vitamineral green
rice protein powder
water

this made another quart of smoothie and I drank that down a bit later. Then I put some water in a jar and went to a 3-hour yoga workshop with Lauren Walker. This was an energy medicine yoga workshop - the first of its kind, I think. I had not taken a class with Lauren before and found the class very fun. She's relaxed and funny and gets into her work. She's good at demonstrating and speaking the steps of what to do and why to do it. The 3 hours flew by and I was very grateful for that.

I went home and immediately went to the cafe where 3 friends of mine were meeting to have our weekly support/dream group. We each shared and supported one another for 2 hours. I'm very grateful for this group of women.

It was a little after 6 when I got home and I remarked to myself how I feel when I do these things for myself. They are so needed and necessary - I feel so great when I do them. i have plenty of opportunities to do these kinds of things but I don't do them so much. WHY? I'll have to work on that.

got home and heated up leftovers from last night for dinner. (see yesterday's post for that.) Again, it was heavenly eating this and feeling grateful for it. I also had 2 spoonfuls of raw cheezecake for dessert. That tasted creamy and smooth and delicious.

we had an evening of old X-files shows and then Avengers, a great movie. I had my dog on my lap as I contentedly sat with my family. It was very nice.

I got to bed really late and woke up 7+ hours later. I feel quite good. I said my morning prayers/intentions and am now going to begin my day. More later.

all love,
Linda

I had 8 hours of sleep last night! Oh what a joy! It's been a while and it felt great! For breakfast, I had a fruit pudding consisting of 1 banana 1 mango pureed in a food processor. Very yummy. I also made a green juice and split it with the family: 1 pineapple 4 oranges heaps and heaps of baby spinach 2 stalks celery very yummy! I went into town to do some energy medicine with Lauren Walker and it was great. Things have been off for me for a while and it's helpful to have a good crew of support peeps around... She's one of them. I made her a lemon cheezecake, parsley pesto, pizza crackers and carob YUM balls for payment. She was delighted and I couldn't have been happier. I really do love making food for people. Particularly when they are so appreciative! :-) I stopped by the local coop to get some greens for tomorrow since I only have some celery and baby spinach left. Remember: it's good to mix up your greens! I also got some simple saline for my nose. It has been a DRY winter and my nose is not happy about it no matter how many humidifiers I've got going around the house. I made a green smoothie for lunch and split it with Matt: 2 large bananas 1 10 oz bag frozen blackberries 1/2 10 oz bag frozen raspberries 1 whole bunch lacinato kale 1 TBSP vitamineral green it was yummy and very berry tasting. the color was a deep dark red - it was gorgeous, like the color of dark cherries. FRESH. I forget how simple these smoothies taste - simple and delicious. I get caught up in adding protein powders and chia and while those things are great, it's nice to keep it simple. I was able to drink 64 oz water today and haven't been able to do that for a whole week. I guess fiber makes you more thirsty - makes sense. worked a full day - had a very nice day at the cafe. Got some orders out. Sold a couple Offhand Designs bags, too which always makes me happy. Got home and found that the closet in my room is pretty much done! YAY! Now I need to make some time to organize it and get my clothes in there. This will make it so I won't need a dresser. Dinner was cooked and raw - a whole lotta veggies. In a pan, I added water, broccoli, red onions, yellow onions and zucchini - cooked them up a bit and added lemon juice and wheat free tamari. Also added some kelp noodles. I tend to gravitate to these after a fast. They are so fun. I added some Rhapsody tempeh and brown rice and at the very end (after turning the heat off) I added chopped up chard. Served it over a big bed of baby spinach. I added a teaspoon of parsley pesto and kim chee. And let me tell you, I was a happy camper. I felt soooo grateful to eat this beautiful meal. I was afraid about feeling overly ful but aside from the big pile of spinach, I mostly had the kelp noodles. I felt very human again, grounded and grateful and hunger sated. It was great. After dinner, we watched some old episodes of creepy X-Files and then I decided to take a bath. It is cold in the house and the bath felt goooooooooood. Epsom salt, essential oils and bubble bath made for a great combination - that and a good book to read. I was sweating the bath was so hot and again, I felt grateful to sweat. So that was my day. Lovely for the first day out of a fast. all love, Linda

Hi there!

this week has gone by so very quickly! I am unsure if I'm stopping completely - actually I think I'm going back to the modified Fuhrman thing. That seems to suit me very well. I feel pretty good so a part of me wants to continue because I am not experiencing what I've experienced in the past. It was funny because after I did the 10 day juice fast, I thought I'd do 7 because that seemed to be more doable. I didn't have a desire to do it again for a while. This time it was like a spur of the moment thing. You see, I had planned on attending Hippocrates program that was to begin 2/17. It didn't work out for me to go and I was really REALLY upset about that. I had so wanted to be taken care of - I wanted to be given a program and food and told, "Do this."

I decided to just do it myself (as usual) LOL. So here I go. Because this program would have either been 3-9 weeks, I'm dedicating this time to myself in this way. I figure if I had been at hippocrates, I'd probably be on a cleanse for at least a week and then a modified program including juices, wheat grass, etc. So, I'll do that for myself and I'll keep posting.

morning juice:

2 stalks celery
a whole lotta baby spinach
radish sprouts
1 pineapple (shared a bit with the kiddos)
4 oranges

This time I kept the greens separate and only included a little bit of the sweet juice in it (enough that I could tolerate it) - it was yummy! Then I drank the sweet stuff. I probably should have switched it but I wanted to have the delight of the pineapple orange juice as a kind of treat.

lunch juice

actually, I made a smoothie! I liked yesterday's so much:

2 bananas
1 local apple
2 cups local blueberries
heaps of baby spinach

I shared this with the kids. It was fresh and delicious. tasted like fruit.

dinner juice:

3 stalks celery
1/3 cuke
2 oz radish sprouts
heaps and heaps of baby spinach (can you tell I ran out of other greens today?)
3 plum tomatoes

I gotta say, I love my dinner juice with the 1/2 avocado, miso, dulse and hot sauce in it.

So, that was the day! OH Confession! This afternoon I made the kids some lunch and I tried some. (Had to test it to see if it was good and then I had a couple more bites!) It's always pretty interesting to taste things after a fast. The flavors are way more pronounced. I also felt pretty stuffed by those few bites. That was amazing.

I rode on the bike for a while (45 minutes on the circuit training program, level 11) and got a good sweat in. I wished that I had done more sweating this week. I'll be sure to get more sweats in somehow in the coming 8 weeks. (Might as well go for 8 weeks now)

well, I'm going to sleep. thanks for reading. let me know what your favorite juices are. I am grateful for this break and I look forward to continuing on in some really good way that makes me feel oh so juicy.

lots of love,
Linda

today was the hardest day and that's because I didn't have enough juice with me. I spend the day out of the house on thursday and get up early (well, early for me). today I was tired and hungry all day. I got up early and had a big juice early in the morning. by 10 am, was already hungry for lunch. I had a nice phone call from a bestie and then mailed off some birthday cards. I was sooooo tired that I fell asleep in the car for 45 minute or so (wasn't keeping track) Got up at 12:45 and drank my smoothie (made a smoothie thinking it would be thicker and keep me fuller longer) By 3 pm, I was hungry. I walked to a local coffee shop and got a ginger tea (16 oz). It was steeped pretty long so I added some cinnamon and that was pretty tasty. I did some work on the computer and then walked back in the blustery cold. I drank a coconut water (about 16 oz) and that felt ok for a short while. Drove the kids home and had to make a pit stop at a market in Waterbury because I had the longest pee in the world! (from tea and coconut water. I was pretty darn tired and was pretty grumpy on that ride home because every slo-mo-fo driver inched their way in front of me as my stomach was growling. I was so happy to get home and make my evening drink. I sucked that bad boy down so fast. I drank nearly 32 oz of water on top of everything else so it's been a lot of liquids today. (no wonder I'm peeing like a race horse!) :-) morning juice: 1 1/2 heads of boston lettuce 1.5 oz radish greens 1 carrot 6 oranges afternoon smoothie: 1/2 head boston lettuce 1.5 bananas a whole lotta strawberries green powder 16 oz ginger tea with 2 dashes of ground cinnamon 17.5 oz coconut water dinner drink 3 stalks celery 1/5 oz radish sprouts 6 or 7 handfuls of baby spinach (maybe more) 1 carrot 1/3 european cuke 3 plum tomatoes added the miso, dulse and 1/2 avocado. also added a small bit of this curry cashew thing that I made ages ago. so that is it! looking forward to getting a good night's sleep À BIENTÔT

well today I woke up feeling like shit. Pardon my expression. My nose doesn't want to do anymore VT winters, I swear! I also didn't get a whole lotta sleep last night so I was feeling slightly low energy in the morning. I did some yoga to help myself feel "on top" of my game, as much as I could. I drank some water and made a juice. today I am coming to notice, too, that this is a lot of liquid to drink and I'm getting full from the juices a lot sooner. the morning's juice: a bunch of kale 2 small carrots (to help the machine work) 4-5 oranges (so glad I'm digging these oranges as I got a case on sale last week!) lunch juice: a head of lettuce 1 carrot 3 apples 2 oranges dinner: 1/3 cuke a bunch of kale 2 carrots 3 plum tomatoes again, I put this in the vitamix with 1/2 avocado, a small handful of dulse flakes and some miso and hot sauce. I made it extra spicy as I really liked that a couple nights ago. I drank it down easily and am here now writing this. I had dinner at 6 pm and here it is 9:30 - I am getting those similar feelings like I had this morning. Tired and feeling slightly flu like. I might do an enema before bed to help pull this out. I know that more water would be good to drink each day but it really is a lot of liquid that I'm drinking already and it's just difficult to drink anymore. I'm off to bed! all love, Linda

I was a bit more hungry today than yesterday. morning: about 1 lb baby spinach (maybe a bit less) 2 carrots (to help the machine with the spinach) 5 oranges delicious lunch 3 oz sunflower sprouts 1/3 euro cuke 1 stalk celery 2 apples 3 oranges dinner: 1/3 euro cuke 1 bunch red kale 3 stalks celery 4 plum tomatoes again, I added 1/2 avocado, 1 TBSP dulse flakes, 1 rounded tsp miso and some dashes of hot sauce. Very tasty but not as spicy as last night's juice. I liked it more spicy. overall, a good day of juicing. I had 2 appts in town. There's some stress in my life at present and I think I'm glad for this super nutrition here. I'm remembering to feel my feelings, let them be and be really gentle with myself...

day 3 of juice fast. still doing fine. here's what I ate: breakfast juice: 1 bunch kale 3 small carrots 1 celery stalk 4 oranges lunch juice: 3 oz radish sprouts 1 bunch kale 3 green apples 2 oranges dinner juice: (So happy for savory juices at night!) 2 stalks celery 4 huge bunches of baby spinach 4 oz radish sprouts 1 zucchini 5 plum tomatoes I took the juice and put it in the vitamix, added 1/2 avocado, 1 TBSP dulse flakes, 1 TBSP miso and a few dashes of hot sauce. This was a YUMMY and SPICY green drink! So far, so good.

it's a cold day today. woke up at 8:45 - slept well - better than the last few weeks, very grateful for that. I went downstairs around 9:30 after having done my morning meditations. wasn't hungry much but was experiencing sinus drainage in my right sinus. This is the nostril that has been bugging me for a couple of weeks now - the air is so dry and the woodstove is drying. I have been keeping water on the stove for steam and a humidifier going on top of that but still, the insides of my nose is dry and cracked. I've been using the neti pot and also using ALL HEAL SALVE to help moisturize my nose and this morning, it was draining a bit. I had about 16 oz of tea this morning - did the smooth move again - not really sure why exactly except, I have this notion in me that it's good for me to clear all this shit out (metaphorically and literally speaking!) LOL Somewhere around 11:30 or so I made a big juice. I looked at the greens and fruit that I have on hand and the oranges were still speaking to me. This is interesting because I haven't had citrus in AGES. morning juice: 1 stalk celery 1 bunch kale 6 oranges I slurped it all down and it was quite yummy. we took the dogs out and then I decided to ride the bike. I did 50 minutes on the stationary bike, level 12 (out of 16) on the cross training program. It felt very good to get on the bike and ride. It's a recumbant bike which has been very helpful for my back and sacrum over the years. Still, one day, I hope to have a stair master. I love those things. after the bike, I took a hot bubbly epsom salt bath. I languished in it while I read and read. I could have stayed in there for hours but a knock on my door told me it was time to get out. I made another juice around 3:30. it's wild - I go from completely satiated to incredibly hungry very very quickly. When I got out of the tub, I felt famished. afternoon juice: 4 ounces radish sprouts 2 stalks celery 6 oranges I don't know what it is, but those oranges were still speaking to me. I drank down that delicious juice and went over to a woman's group that I belong to. Had a wonderful couple of hours of sharing and support with phenomenal women and then walked home. It was around 6:30 when I got home and probably because of the dinner smells in the house, I got extremely hungry. I decided to have a savory juice since those things are so friggin satisfying on juice fasts for dinner experiences. This juice was delicious. dinner juice: 2 stalks celery 1 bunch kale 1 zucchini 4 carrots then I put it in a blender and added 1/2 avocado and a small bit of raw marinara sauce that needed to get eaten or else it would go bad. I also added some dulse and a spoonful of miso. It was absolutely delicious. Tasted like an italian dinner. This really helps me to feel sated and not deprived. About an hour after dinner, I decided to have more tea. This time throat coat tea - it tastes delicious and is sweet all on its own. It's a cold night and the house is cold despite the wood stove going so the tea feels good in my hands and in my mouth. Some observations thus far: 1) Aside from the drainage of sinus and also the um need to be near the bathroom, I am doing quite well thus far. I don't think I've gone on a fast where I've had to use the bathroom as much and I know that the tea is helping (although I've never had that fast a response from that tea before.) OK, TMI. Anyway, we'll see what the next day brings but so far, so good. I'm not sure how long I'll do this for - no more than 7 days, maybe less. I'm going to play this by ear and take each day in earnest. 2) I'm sensing some clarity which I'm very grateful for... Circumstances in my life have been full, intense and at times emotional. I was hoping to go away and have time to think and have someone else take care of food and other things for me but I'm finding a way to do that myself. I was also noticing that when the going was getting rough, I was finding that I was not responding the way I wanted to. Wayne Dyer has a great saying and it goes like this: When you squeeze an apple, all you'll ever get is apple juice. When you squeeze an orange, you'll get orange juice. What happens when you get squeezed? what comes out of you? Well for me, I was noticing that I was turning pretty sad and mad at myself and that shit just had to change. 3) I am getting a sense of rebooting the system. I was mentally and physically feeling stuck for almost a month and feeling as though I was spiraling down to a place I didn't want to be. Physically I was experiencing some kind of crazy immune response - maybe it was the dry weather coupled with stress but I was getting little tiny bumps on my fingers and toes in the last few weeks. By the time of this writing, these bumps are nearly gone (only 2 days of juice feasting!) Whoever says that this is bull-melarky needs to try it for themselves in earnest. It's pretty amazing. My nose is way better tonight than it's been the last 3 weeks. I'm very grateful for this. 4) It's pretty darn easy this time to juice and drink. I've asked Matt if he can handle the dinners for him/the kids this week and that I think will make things easier for me. I'm not putting a whole lot of thought into this. I'm just reaching for things that seem appealing to me and doing them. I'm not staying to some strict amount and I really enjoyed the half of avocado tonight so I'll do that again if it seems like a good thing to do. I'm drinking a minimum of 96 oz of juice - more like 100 oz and also drinking tea or water but (not surprisingly) I'm not that thirsty for extra liquids. 5) I was wondering how doing this in the winter would be and so far, so good. I'll keep you posted. I don't believe the hype that we need hot food in the winter. I tend to think that if we eat things that are easily digestible then our bodies are not bogged down in the digestion process as much and can put more emphasis into things like circulation. Think about how tired you feel after a heavy meal, it's because the body slows other things down in order to put a big focus on the stomach to digest the food. I'm not saying that is a terrible feeling - I'm just saying that it would be hard for the body to have to keep warm, digest meals and do other things like keep immune systems up and healthy. I still get cold when I eat raw foods - I just find that I don't get that shut down feeling that I do when I eat heavy cooked meals that weigh me down and make me sleepy. I tend to feel VERY cold after a cooked meal at night. Even when that meal has curry or ginger in it... 6) So far, I'm not missing all the sweets and chocolate I've been eating lately. No matter how far I've come with emotional eating, I still have triggers - when stress comes, I notice that I tend towards sweets. And the past few months, I've been going gang busters with sweets (compared with how I normally like to eat, or how I eat when I feel the very best in my body.) I sort of think this takes a toll on the liver as well as immune function. We know that eating sugar suppresses the immune system. We also know that sugar feeds/fuels things like obesity and disease. We can gravitate to sweet tastes for many reasons. I learned that fruits are the cleansers for the body and greens are the healers. I know many fruitarians that espouse great things from eating a diet of mainly fruit. I'm not there, however, I like not making fruit evil. It seems to me that if ripe fruit was so bad, nature wouldn't have created it for us to eat. I would love to see the studies on how fruit and green juices help in healing. Maybe one day I'll be a part of a study in some way. I write this from my experience doing this... So, ok - I'm rambling. It's nice to get some of these thoughts out. More tomorrow.

day 1 of a juice fast - doing this again. I was expecting to go to a spa-like place beginning tomorrow (3/17) and be taken care of and drink juices and eat sprouts for a couple/few weeks. Those plans didn't pan out (dammit) so I decided to do a juice fast for a few days anyway. It won't be the same, but it will be fine.

I woke up this morning and had a cup of tea. I decided to have smooth move tea for some dumbass reason.

My first juice was:
2 stalks celery
2 small beets
4 carrots
1 bunch kale

this made about 32 oz veggie juice. it wasn't super sweet but it was good.

I had some water later in the afternoon.

somewhere around 3 I was hungry again so I made a big big juice of
pineapple
oranges
1 bunch kale
1 stalk celery

I kept the pineapple and oranges separate - the color was beautiful. the juicer that I use is more like a smoothie in a way - pulpy and yummy. It makes a lot of juice come out. I added some of the fruit juice with the greens and drank it down and then feasted on the pineapple and orange juice. SOOOOO yummy.

I read a bit and then took a nap with the dogs. Very sweet. It was cold in the house though so I was grateful for 2 warm dogs to curl up with.

Woke up, took the dogs out for a walk, fed them their dinner and then made myself a big juice. I liked that pineapple orange so much that I decided to have it for dinner. This time:
2 stalks celery
4-5 oz sunflower sprouts
pineapple
oranges

This time I put the whole thing together. It made about 40 oz of juice. DELICIOUS. Easy to drink.

So now the time is 8 pm and I'm loving feeling full but not stuffed and gross feeling. Day one was a good day. Let's hope I have as much of a good day tomorrow. :-)

all love,
Linda